Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 103 



producing interests has been in not properly apprehending the enor- 

 mous fuel value of the natural gas they were destroying, and in not 

 demanding legislation for its protection instead of successfully throt- 

 tling and preventing it in every state of the Union except one 

 Indiana. When the people of that great state awoke to the fact that 

 their richest mineral possession was being rapidly wasted, they rose to 

 the occasion, and although it was largely a case of "locking the stable 

 door after the horse had been stolen/' they effectually prevented any 

 further useless waste of natural gas. This Indiana statute which has 

 been declared constitutional by our highest courts, says in effect to the 

 oil producers: "You can not take the oil from the ground where nature 

 has safely stored it, until you provide a method of utilizing the accom- 

 panying gas, or volatile oil as well," and it also says to both the pro- 

 ducer and consumer of natural gas, that it is against "public policy to 

 waste this valuable fuel, and that it will not be permitted to either 

 party." This Indiana statute for the conservation of petroleum and 

 natural gas should be enacted into law in every state where this precious 

 fuel exists ; and why has it not been done ? 



JAMES J. HILL. 



The railroad magnate of the Great Northern is recognized not only as 

 a captain of industry, but as a high authority on the lands and resources 

 of the United States. His thoughts are well worth weighing. 



"Of all the sinful wasters of man's inheritance on earth," said the 

 late Professor Shaler, ' ' and all are in this regard sinners, the very 

 worst are the people of America. ' ' This is not a popular phrase, but a 

 scientific judgment. It is borne out by facts. In the movement of 

 modern times, which has made the world commercially a small place, 

 and has produced a solidarity of the races such as never before existed, 

 we have come to the point where we must to a certain extent regard the 

 natural resources of this planet as a common asset, compare them with 

 demands now made and likely to be made upon them, and study their 

 judicious use. Commerce, wherever untrammeled, is wiping out bound- 

 aries and substituting the world relation of demand and supply for 

 smaller systems of local economy. The changes of a single generation 

 have brought the. nations of the earth closer together than were the 

 states of this Union at the close of the Civil War. If we fail to consider 

 what we possess of wealth available for the uses of mankind, and to 

 what extent we are wasting a national patrimony that can never be 

 restored, we might be likened to the directors of a company who never 

 examine a balance sheet. 



The sum of resources is simple and fixed. From the sea, the mine, 

 the forest and the soil must be gathered everything that can sustain the 

 life of man. Upon the wealth that these supply must be conditioned 



